A 21-year-old British woman was sentenced to eight years behind bars for posing as a 16-year-old boy online to groom and sexually abuse young girls. Gemma Watts posed online as “Jake Waton” on social media to lure in up to 50 victims in total, several of whom she met up with in person and had sex with, BBC News reports. She used her own picture on Snapchat and targeted girls aged 13 to 16 by liking their profiles before striking up a conversation and escalating things quickly.
- This was an extremely targeted attack. Watts went all-in on her deception, sending flirty messages, exchanging explicit pictures, and even disguising her true appearance by wearing hats and tying her hair back to avoid being detected as a woman. All of the victims told police that they believed they were in a relationship with a male.
- Watts’ victims have experienced severe trauma as a result of this deception. Several of them have attempted suicide in the wake of the knowledge that they had been groomed and abused by Watts. One 14-year-old admitted that her “heart exploded” upon learning the truth, saying in a victim impact statement: “My world stopped, I actually stopped breathing… I loved him so much.”
- Her deception resulted not just in emotional abuse but sexual abuse as well. Prosecutor Barnaby Shaw told the court that Watts regularly groped one victim during regular overnight stays over several months, and that the girl in question believed she was touching “Waton’s” penis though it was likely a rolled up pair of socks. She later admitted she’d been sexually intimate with at least three of her victims, including penetrative acts.
- The sentencing judge condemned Watts for her crimes. Judge Susan Evans QC told Watts: “Their youth, as you plainly knew, made them more naive and made you more likely to get away with your deception.” Watts pleaded guilty to three counts of meeting a child following sexual grooming, three counts of sexual assault, and one count of assault by penetration.
